Sharon M. Draper’s Romiette and Julio does not hide its literary roots, its debt to the play Romeo and Juliet, William Shakespeare’s iconic tragedy of young lovers doomed because of their families’ feud. The students at Thomas Jefferson High School read Romeo and Juliet in their English class and watch the musical West Side Story, an adaptation of Romeo and Juliet. Furthermore, the novel’s police captain and principal newscaster mention the striking similarity between Romi and Julio’s names and Shakespeare’s characters. Romeo and Juliet’s popularity for more than four centuries attests to its relevance. Because of its defiant teenage characters and examination of powerful emotions, the play is a go-to text for high school English classes; for many, it is their introduction to Shakespeare.

Narrative elements of Romeo and Juliet have become familiar in various novel and film adaptations: Adaptations often follow two young, reckless lovers driven by passion, theirs being a forbidden love that violates entrenched boundaries and is doomed to end in death. Romiette and Julio, however, makes a significant change to the Shakespearean template. In the novel, tension does not come from a longstanding feud between families, as it does in Shakespeare’s tragedy, nor does it explicitly come from two warring gangs as it does in Leonard Bernstein and Stephen Sondheim’s musical West Side Story.